Ducks’ Hebert Saves Best for Maple Leafs : NHL: He stops 38 shots to shut out one of NHL’s top teams, 1-0, and record another franchise milestone.

When the moment came, Guy Hebert basked in it.

He didn’t have to look at the Maple Leaf Gardens scoreboard Wednesday nightto know that after 60 minutes, the number under the word Toronto had not changed.

It was still zero.

Hebert made 38 saves to record the first shutout in team history, and Tim Sweeney’s short-handed goal at 6:15 of the third period gave the Ducks a 1-0 victory over Toronto in front of 15,728.

It was the Ducks’ 11th victory, and it came against one of the NHL’s best teams. The Maple Leafs set an NHL record with 10 consecutive victories to open the season, and entered Wednesday’s game 20-7-5. Their 45 points tied them with the New York Rangers as the NHL’s best before the defeat dropped them to second.

“It’s not every day you can come into Maple Leaf Gardens and beat the first-place Toronto Maple Leafs, 1-0,” Hebert said. “You know, I don’t think anybody would have guessed we could have ever done it. It’s a credit to the whole team.”

But to no one more than Hebert, who was stellar Wednesday and has been sharp for some time. His goals-against average is a mere 2.59. Over the last seven games, it is 1.50.

And probably most impressive, he has not been scored on in his last 103 minutes 56 seconds, dating to the last minute of the first period of the Ducks’ 2-1 overtime victory over St. Louis Sunday in Anaheim.

This time, he withstood nine Toronto power plays, and a barrage of shots from two of the NHL’s leading goal-scorers. Wendel Clark, who leads the NHL with 26 goals, fired six shots at Hebert. Dave Andreychuk, who has 25 goals, tried six.

“It was a pretty difficult night,” Hebert said. “Any time that line with Andreychuk, (Doug) Gilmour and Clark is out there, that’s a lot of goals and a lot of points on that line. You can never count them out. You can never think you’re too safe in your own end.

Clark hit the post once, as did Glenn Anderson. But Hebert made plenty of his own luck. He stopped Kent Manderville on a breakaway in the second, sliding to stop the shot with his pads. And all game long--including a five-on-three opportunity--Hebert held his ground.

“He was very controlled, and he bailed himself an awful lot because he controlled the rebounds, in really tough situations,” said Brian Hayward, Duck goalie coach and television analyst. “Especially in that five-on-three, he didn’t give up many long rebounds. That’s a pretty good indication a guy’s on top of his game. I thought he was just tremendous.”

Still, without Sweeney’s goal, he could have been a loser in overtime, or anguishing over a rare 0-0 tie.

Sweeney scored on a two-on-one against defenseman Dimitri Mironov. Sweeney got the puck to Terry Yake, and Yake passed back to Sweeney on the right side as they closed on the net, forcing goalie Damian Rhodes to move across the net frantically. Rhodes went down early, and Sweeney lifted the puck high for his fifth goal of the season.

The Ducks backed into their defensive shell after that, fending off a final power play in the last 1:41 after defenseman Bill Houlder was penalized for charging after Gilmour ended up in the net behind Hebert.

Hebert made one more clutch save--on Clark’s point-blank attempt with 11 seconds left--and didn’t budge from the net though he twisted his leg in the final seconds and was attended to by the trainer.

“At that point, with that little time left, you couldn’t have dragged me off the ice, I don’t think,” Hebert said. “Tonight feels like one of those nights, you know, they come pretty rare. I saw the puck real well all night tonight. It’s strange, like sometimes you get that feeling once a year, and if you’re fortunate you get it a couple of times.”

Duck Notes

Defenseman David Williams played after joining the team from San Diego of the IHL on emergency recall to fill in for Mark Ferner, who suffered a charley horse in Tuesday’s game.

Stu Grimson struck again, bumping into Garry Valk in the pregame warm-up. “Stu ran into him and put him out for the game,” Coach Ron Wilson said. Valk was scratched as a precaution after he felt dizzy, since he had a concussion last week. “I’m starting to feel like one of those bug-zappers, where people just fly into you and fall down dead,” Grimson said. “It’s unbelievable.” Duck center Anatoli Semenov dislocated his elbow Dec. 7 when he was caught in a check by Grimson.